Newsletter “From CSO” Jan. 30, 2019

Thanks for reading another edition of the CSO Newsletter Members Only Section. Please see the below Members Only announcements and information. Also, please remember to check out the regularly updated CSO Members Only website.

Regards,

Bradley

CSO 2019 Winter Membership Meeting:

Staff is hard at work to ensure another constructive CSO Winter Membership Meeting from March 11-13, 2019. This year, we look to have productive discussions with representatives from NOAA, FEMA, USACE, NCCOS, USFWS, Sea Grant, NERRS, and more. We also are preparing for a host of congressional related activities including a Hill briefing, individual member meetings, and the 3rd annual Coastal Celebration. Plus, another great Legal Council meeting and a range of networking opportunities are in store. Remember to Register for the Members Meeting here, and the Coastal Celebration here.

From The Hill:

Although February is the typical start of the appropriations cycle, with the release of the President’s Budget Request slated for the first Monday of February, i.e. next week, the administration has stated they will miss the deadline due to the government shutdown. While the deadline is missed most years, even when there is not a government shutdown, due to the short-term continuing resolution ending on February 15th and potentially having another partial government shutdown the delay could stretch even longer. This most likely means a very rushed consideration by Congressional offices for FY2020 appropriations. As in previous years, for those states able to reach out to their Congressional delegation, CSO will provide the basic information needed to submit an appropriations request in a timely manner, particularly if there is a quick turnaround required for consideration. We will provide members information in February regardless of timeline in order to best be prepared for when the President’s Budget Request is released.

CSO Work Group Updates:

*Please note that each CSO Work Group now has a dedicated page in the CSO Members Only website with up to date information.

Coastal Nonpoint Work Group: The next conditionally approved state call is February 26, 2019. The next full CNPS Work Group call will be in March, 2019. Please be in touch with bfaust@coastalstates.org with any questions.

Communications Work Group: The Communications Work Group continues work on the Extreme Weather Fact Sheet. We still need photos and success stories. We would like to have one story per region and need stories and photos from the membership. Let us know if you have a project or initiative that you would like to highlight. Please send information to mmolnar@coastalstates.org

Reminder – if your program uses social media – Please follow the CSO pages and re-share, retweet, repost our posts. We post items that benefit the overall CZM community and need your help to ensure that we reach as large of an audience as possible. We thank you in advance for your assistance. The CSO social media pages are: @CoastalStatesOrganization @coastalstates_cso @Coastal_States

I Heart Estuaries

This February NERRA is asking all coastal programs to join a social media campaign to show how truly, madly, deeply we love our estuaries and the programs that support them—like ours!

From 2/12 to 2/14: please join NERRA and its partners in the annual #iheartestuaries campaign. Now in its eighth year, this campaign is designed to show Congress how much estuaries and our programs are valued by everyone, regardless of which coastal state you live in or what side of the aisle you favor.

The timing for this campaign is critical—it comes just as our representatives are gearing up for Hill visits. Your display of public affection will help remind elected officials how important estuaries are to your partners and the communities you support. No tweet will be too sweet, no “estuary lovin” status too much of an overshare; just include the hashtags: #iheartestuaries and tag your elected official.

Our friends at NERRA have created some detailed guidance (PDF) that we urge you to review and share with friends, partners, and anyone else you think would profess their unabashed, sappy, estuary love—be they partners, family members, or personal friends.

Coastal Hazards Planning and Adaptation Work Group: Please be on the lookout fornext installment by the Coastal Hazards Planning and Adaptation Work Group for the Beneficial Use and Resiliency Webinar Series. If you are interested in sharing about BU projects occurring in your state, please contact Bri Cotti-Rausch (bcotti-rausch@coastalstates.org).

Atlantic Flyway Shorebird project: CSO staff continue work on the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird project. Staff are working with interested states to identify dates for the instate workshops. We look forward to continuing the discussion on how to address shorebird concerns in state.

CSO Members Only Website Update: A new members only calendar / event listing is now live on the CSO members only website. Please see the event listing on the left side of the Members Only homepage, and click the link for the full event calendar. If you would like to share an event with CSO members through the calendar and/or the biweekly newsletter, please send information to John Ryan-Henry (jryan-henry@coastalstates.org).

Spring 2019 Roundtable on Managed Retreat Policies as a Strategy for Adapting to Coastal Change: In Spring 2019, Georgetown Climate Center will host a roundtable in Washington D.C. with academic experts and state and local leaders to discuss opportunities and challenges associated with retreat as a strategy for adapting to sea-level rise. GCC is interested to hear from any CSO members that would be interested in participating or presenting. If you are interested in joining this event, please reach out to John Ryan-Henry at jryan-henry@coastalstates.org.

Coordination with State Water Agencies – Association of Clean Water Administrators 2 Question Survey: CSO is seeking out NGO partners to work with more closely to develop tools and resources that can help further the Coastal Management Program reach. We have identified the Association of Clean Water Administrators as a potential partner for future work.

Please answer this short survey to help us understand how you are currently working with ACWA members (state water agency officials) and what your shared interests and priorities may be.

National Estuary Programs and Coastal Program Integration Project Update: As described at the CSO Fall Members Meeting, the USEPA is seeking to comprehensively understand the integration between National Estuary Programs (NEPs) and state CZM Programs, nationally. We are seeking to create a national view of the partnership landscape that can be used to message to USEPA leadership and external stakeholders about tangible on-the-ground examples of cooperative federalism. And we are employing a two-step approach to complete this work. The first step involved an analysis of existing NEP and CZM Program materials that are publicly available. This literature review helped us develop a high-level view of the 28 NEPs and their 20 state CZM Program partners, including the nature of their institutional alignments and overlapping priority areas.

In January, the project will be moving into a second phase whereby Bri Cotti-Rausch and contractors from Industrial Economics (IEc) will be reaching out to individual CZM Program Staff and NEP Staff. We will be conducting brief interviews with the appropriate Staff to collect more details about how the two programs work together in several states. These interviews will help IEc create a database of success stories that highlight lessons learned and tangible outcomes that have resulted from working together. Among other things, we hope to understand the following:

The value-added of each program to their partnership work;

Different opportunities to work together that have resulted given the unique institutional placements found across the partnership landscape;

Examples of how funding resources are leveraged to complete on-the-ground projects;

How NEPs serve as delivery mechanisms for USEPA data, tools, funding, and other resources; and

Opportunities to enhance NEP-CZM collaborations in the future.

The national programmatic overview and individual success stories will be synthesized into a whitepaper report, informational one-pagers, as well as an online geospatial Story Map viewer. We intend for these tools to help USEPA message about how these collaborations are achieving overlapping goals of NEPs and CZM Programs that include improving waters, habitats, and living resources while balancing the needs of coastal communities. From the CSO perspective, we hope to use this partnership with EPA to increase the visibility of coastal programs nationally and to find opportunities to strategically leverage federal resources and investments in the coastal zone that will further the reach of coastal programs. Please be in touch with bcotti-rausch@coastalstates.org with any thoughts or questions.

Thank you for reading another edition of the CSO Member’s only newsletter and please be in touch with myself or relevant staff on any of the items above.